ty. Come, tell me
a few things."

Ashton-Kirk took his cigar from his mouth.

"I told you," said he, "that the reports of Burgess and Fuller,
together with the conversation we had with Tobin, had enlightened me
upon these points." As he enumerated them, he checked them off with
his fingers:

"_Why the murder was done._

"_The identity of the confederate of Locke._

"_That the man would return to the scene of the crime._"

"Yes," said Pendleton, "those, I think, were the points."

"The first two," went on the investigator, "I will allow to stand for
a while. But I promised to illustrate for you, and I think I can do
so."

Ashton-Kirk here arose and passed through the storeroom and kitchen
into the bedroom.

"The writing upon the step in the hall," said he, facing his friend,
"directed Locke's confederate to look for something behind Wayne's
portrait. As all the pictures of Wayne in the place were broken or
otherwise showed traces of rough handling, it seemed that the thing
desired must have been found. However, I was not sure about that, as
I have told you.

"If you will recall Tobin's remarks of the other night, you will note
that the only thing he could admire in the man's character was his
fighting spirit. Then it developed that Hume made a boast of having
come by this naturally enough. He claimed descent from one of
Washington's officers. Tobin could not recall the officer's name; but
he related an anecdote of him that was unmistakable. The officer was
General Wayne!"

"By George!" cried Pendleton.

"The collection of Wayne portraits was in this way explained. It was
also suggested to me that Hume might be an assumed name--that the
numismatist might have once been known as Wayne, and that Locke had
known him by that name. Of course, it's quite likely that he was not
really a descendant of Wayne. But he probably called himself Wayne
nevertheless.

"I see," said Pendleton, his hands waving with excitement. "And in the
stress of the moment, Locke wrote the name 'Wayne' upon the step in
candle grease, forgetting that his confederate only knew their
proposed victim as Hume." His eyes rested upon the walls and upon the
sneering, unpleasant portrait of the murdered man. "He meant that the
thing he desired was _there_," indicating the portrait with an
exultant sweep of the arm. "And by George, it must be there still."

He sprang forward with the evident intention of wrenching the picture
from the wall; b